Stoptech Sport (aka 309). Quiet on the street and good enough for track days. The only downside is the dust.
I use Stoptech Sport pads + Centric blank rotors with NB brake conversion on my 91 NA. I mostly daily drive my car, but will occasionally take it on mountain runs or the occasional autocross. Haven't experienced any performance issues with them. They're very quiet and perform well under hard braking. Only problem is that these pads put out a *lot* of dust.
Ceramic pads Bosch Quietcast BC1047 or Wagner OEX for longevity, cleaner wheels and reduced stopping distance when warmed up.
I got a nice upgraded pad and rotor kit (all 4) for around $340. If you already have a set of wrenches, you can probably just do the job yourself; so many youtube tutorials. I did a full brake job on my other car for the first time ever so bought all the tools needed (maybe $150 worth) - wrench set, torque wrench, breaker bar, wire brushes, grease, brakleen spray - and still very much under what I would have spent at a mechanic. If you have the space and time, it's really not that bad and can actually be enjoyable with some beer and tunes. Would never go to the dealer for something like that unless I had money to burn.
I've got an alltrack (same brakes as the standard gti) and I've got ate rotors from fcp with bosch quietcast pads from rock auto. I was just looking for stock replacement and they have 10k miles on them so far with no complaints.
Looking at the choices available for yours, good pads that won't break a budget I'd go with Bosch QuietCast.
I've been on Stoptech 309 pads for all 4 years of my car. Winter, Daily and Track. The pads will fade if you get serious enough. I just changed them to Endless MX72 pads I found a deal on rhdjapan.com. They are better in every way.
My blew through the stock pads AND rotors in 25k.
Put on the StopTech pad rotor/pad kit and the Mountune steel lines.
While this setup had less bite than the stock setup, it was just as powerful and more controllable/progressive.
They also lasted WAY longer than stock, no squeal, and very little brake dust.
If you are dead set on not getting some Napa golds or whatever grab some Stoptech Steet pads. They are dusty as hell and wear pretty quick not in stop and go city traffic. I live in the sticks so lots of highway and running the stoptech steets on my Gx sedan they dust up bad and I swap them every 35k~. I do have the sport brake kit on it but I don't see the base calipers making much difference on dust and wear.
Even though they have the word street in the name, they are very prone to judder and deposit build up and are not good under gentle street usage.
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